Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection by the separatist Irish Volunteers in late April, 1916, launched with the goal of creating an independent republic of Ireland separate from the United Kingdom. Most of the fighting took place in Dublin, where 1,250 Irish Volunteers under the command of men such as Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, and Tom Clarke proclaimed the "Irish Republic". However, 16,000 British Army troops and 1,000 Royal Irish Constabulary policemen were dispatched to crush the uprising, and the heavily-armed British troops prevented the Irish rebels from receiving weapons from the German Empire. The Irish rebels agreed to an unconditional surrender on 29 April, and the British arrested 3,500 people, including random Catholic civilians who had not taken part in the uprising. 1,800 Irishmen and Irishwomen were sent to internment camps; the uprising left 66 Irish rebels dead (plus 16 executed), 143 British soldiers and policemen dead and 397 wounded, and 260 civilians dead and 2,217 wounded; over half of the people killed during the uprising were civilians, many of them killed during Britain's shelling of the inner city of Dublin. The uprising inspired physical force Irish republicanism against the UK, and the brutality shown by the British towards the Irish would lead to increased support for Irish nationalist parties such as Sinn Fein and more militancy among Irish Catholics, leading to the Irish War of Independence three years later.